


I'm There

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Series: Danger or Trouble, I'm There on the Double [3]
Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Break Up, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26358235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: Ron comes in contact with the Attitudinator and goes evil again. Within minutes, Global Justice falls. Shego turns back to evil. Communications are down.Kim is the only one who can stop him.
Relationships: Dr. Drakken & Kim Possible, Kim Possible & Ron Stoppable
Series: Danger or Trouble, I'm There on the Double [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1318166
Kudos: 3





	I'm There

Doctor Drakken will  _ not _ stop looking at Kim all wishy-washy like. She loves the guy, but it’s making her really angry — no, she’s already angry… uh, angri _ er _ than she already felt. It’s about the tenth time she catches him staring at her with such a dramatic frown that she finally snaps and asks him, “Drew, what is the stinkin’ sitch?”

The doors to Global Justice slide open and the duo passes through. 

“You just — erm — nyrgh — you’re not really  _ yourself _ today,” Drakken says softly. “Aaand perhaps — we  _ shouldn’t  _ be meeting with Doctor Director if you’re in a mood?”

Kim hits him with a scathing look. Several agents stop and turn to face them — still reeling from two bizarre developments:

  1. Dr. Drakken being a good guy _and_ working directly with Kim Possible.  
  

  2. Kim Possible on Global Justice property when she is in fact an _ex-_ agent.



But Kim ignores the other agents. Drakken on the other hand? Not so much. Just like Ron, Drakken just looooooooves marinating under waves of attention. It makes Kim roll her eyes. She wishes she could still be that green. 

“Do you  _ really _ want to know why I’m mad?” she asks, stomping up a staircase. 

“Hm, that depends,” Drakken says carefully. “Does it bring you joy for you to tell me?”

Kim raises an eyebrow. “Are you — ”

“ — watching Marie Kondo? Yes,” Drakken sticks his nose in the air as if this certifies him as a true badass. “I took your advice about streaming platforms.”

“Wow,” Kim actually scratches her head because this is turning out to be a weird day. “Um. Okay. Well… hey, we’re friends right?”

“Certainly,” Drakken chirps without any hesitation.

Kim takes in a deep breath, “Well. See, Ron and I — ”

“Hey wait!” someone shouts way back at the entrance. It’s one of the stooges from Team Impossible. Dash…  _ something _ . He runs with an outstretched arm and a gaping mouth. Kim looks to Drakken who is similarly nonplussed by the flopsweat special agent. They grin like dual Cheshire Cats as the door slaps shut before the oaf, his cries of agony quickly drowned out by the hum of the elevator. 

Though something does manage to catch Kim’s ear just as they pass by the second floor.

“ _ Uh, sorry Agent DaMont, but the password I just used isn’t working… someone must have changed it a few minutes ago I guess.” _

Weird. But it’s Global Justice; it’s  _ always _ weird (and highly inefficient) down here. 

“You were saying?” Drakken says all of a sudden.

Kim snaps back and turns to him, blinking a few times to wake back up. “Sorry, I spaced out. Um… what were we talking about?”

“How we’re friends,” Drakken says flatly, though that upward twitch in his mouth tells her that he’s lowkey psyched out to have friends. Especially friends like her. It’s that deep-seated tick of his to gloat whenever possible. Drakken nods for her to follow along just as they hit the seventeenth floor, strutting down a  _ very _ long corridor.

“Right. Friends,” Kim says stiffly. Oh man. She does _ not  _ want to talk about this. It’s not fair to Ron, or even Drakken really, but honestly — out of anyone she knows, Drakken’s the one to get it the most. Similar strugs. He too has no special powers and has to deal with being outclassed more and more every single day. 

She finds the courage in her chest and starts, “It’s about Ron. We had a fight— ”

The door they’re approaching suddenly opens and in storms Will Du, running as if his next promotion were on the line.

“Hey Will!” Kim and Drakken wave to him all chummy. 

But something’s off — Will is like _ actually _ freaking. Not just making a show of how much he cares about things. Even from the hall’s length away, Kim can see how wide Will’s eyes are, how carelessly his feet stomp away at the floor, going as far as  _ scuffing the tile  _ in his rush. 

Just before the door clangs shut, a plasma laden fist pops in the way and Kim winces and there’s a loud  _ Bang! _ But the door remains open, doors shuddering as they try to bypass this glowing fist. A second hand slips in and the floor nearly quakes from the crazy power exerted into prying it open. 

There’s only one person Kim knows who would put  _ that  _ much energy into avoiding a stupid password console.

Shego steps into the hall with fire in her eyes and — wait! Shego? Why is Shego here?! She’s supposed to be working with Wade on a solo mission — DNAmy or something… and you know what’s even weirder? Shego doesn’t even  _ notice  _ them! 

“Hey!” Kim throws her hands on her hips, sidestepping to block Will, who spills into another panic. “What is going on here?”

“Um um…” Will stutters, looking back at Shego who very truthfully is doing a quite a good job at looking intimidating. Kim’s almost surprised that Shego isn’t blowing smoke out of her nose. Suddenly Will’s hands slap Kim in the chest to push her away and he nearly faceplants trying to run off. 

“ _ Will! _ ” Kim grits her teeth. “Gah! Shego! What did you do to Will? You know he scares easy!”

Shego freezes and  _ very _ noticeably relaxes her posture, eyes  _ struggling _ to tear themselves away from the cowardly agent. “What do you want, Princess?”

Kim looks to Drakken who is positively quivering at the sight of angry Shego, hoping that maybe for once the blue man will finally step up his game but nope. Slack-jawed and chattering, great, that’s winning you a lot of points, Drak. 

(Drakken and Shego have this whole  _ Will-They-Won’t-They? _ thing going on, or at least they do in Drakken’s head. Kim is 99% sure that Shego is like super gay. Not only is Drakken poor at reading the room, he’s also been binge-watching way too much  _ Friends _ , and is probably connecting way too hard with Ross and his sitch with Rachel.)

(This is a guess; Kim hasn’t seen  _ Friends _ and is not intending on checking it out.)

“Shego, come on. Wade told me you were on a solo mission today,” Kim crosses her arms. “Not cool playing hooky, when you agreed to — and hold on a second, why are you  _ here? _ ”

Shego raises an eyebrow, teeth still clenched, and gives one last look to Will Du before nodding her head towards the exit. “Come on,” she grunts, speed walking over to the dreaded password console. Kim and Drakken exchange yet another look, but he just sort of shrugs back. 

“Can you lead?” Kim asks Drakken quietly. He bites his lip but struts ahead while she pulls out the Kimmunicator, intentionally hovering behind Drakken’s broad shoulders so that Shego can’t see. 

Kim doesn’t know what it is, but there is  _ definitely _ a sitch, and Wade is probably the guy with the answers to — 

— no signal?!

This — is  _ so _ … annoying.

Kim stomps after Drakken and stops when he does. Shego stoops over the console and begins inputting the password and again — super weird that Shego knows the password! Didn’t someone say the password just changed too? 

Shego’s too lazy to even make a passcode for her phone more complicated than 0-0-0-0, let alone memorize someone else’s.

Kim growls and looks back down the hall to check on Will… who does  _ not _ know the password. And he’s the guy that should! What is this — Topsy Turvy Day?

What is going on?!

There’s a tug on her sleeve. Kim almost lashes out but keeps her cool when sees how wide Drakken’s eyes are. Like a frightened little kitty. God, he needs to get over himself. Kim considers forcing the conversation where Shego finally turns Drakken down but then Kim doesn’t… because Drakken’s muttering something. 

If there is anything that Kim knows about Drakken — the man likes to hear himself talk and he simply does not utilize small lip movements. He’s the kinda guy who expands his jaw for all its worth.

“ _ Password _ ,” Drakken mutters.

Kim turns to look to the console and immediately her eyes go just as wide as Drakken’s — maybe even wider, because on the console it reads:

B-O-O-Y-A-H-A-H-A-H-A-

Head in the game, Possible.

Kim grabs Shego by the neck and drags her down, wedging a knee into the small of her back. She wrenches again on the neck but slips back as Shego’s fist nails Kim right in the throat. Kim throttles back and slams into the steel wall. She’s still trying to steady herself when Shego darts in and punches her right in the temple. 

Kim grits her teeth. “Did someone use the Attiudinator on — ”

Shego’s plasma flares light up, the glow actually superseding her own size. But when she swings, it’s almost like she’s not even trying. Kim, despite the throbbing pain, swerves out of the way and tries to continue talking, but a wave of heat ripples through the air. Kim tries to resist the heat but it’s not possible for someone so _ human _ , so  _ normal _ , and she breaks into a deathly sweat, knees giving out from under her.

Shego playfully tosses one flare into the air and catches it. “Yes, I got Attitudinated or whatever. Your stinkin’ unemployed boyfriend too.”

“Unemployed?” Drakken butts in. “Why, Kimberly Ann, that’s perfect! We have an open spot on the team for someone just like the Buffoon — ” He meets Kim’s withering gaze. “ — oh,  _ that’s _ what you had a fight about?” 

Kim nods and sighs so loudly that it actually grates against Drakken’s neck hairs. 

“Ha, yup yup, Buffoon’s in a pretty bad mood, gotta say. Anyways,” Shego laughs, swinging both arms above her head, all the heat shifting into one massive plasma charge. “Sayonara Princess — ”

Kim braces herself but it’s done. She’s done. There’s no way. She should have known. There is absolutely no way she can not take someone on when they are just so darn —

“Pathetic!” Drakken suddenly shouts, pointing a mean looking finger at Shego.  _ Somehow _ that actually works. The flares die and Shego’s hands retreat to her chest. 

“WHAT?!” Shego shrieks, voice vibrating from sheer rage. 

Of course the overwhelming heat aura stays live, barely requiring a modicum of Shego’s attention. Meaning Kim is going to melt into death while Drakken and Shego finally sort out their stupid drama.

“I said you’re pathetic!” Drakken repeats, quickly softening his gaze. “I only say that because I love you.”

Oh Doc…

_ Stomp. Stomp. _

Drakken takes ten steps back with the speed of a well-trained ballerina. “But you walked out on me because you were scared of — of — of being my friend! And you got a job for Big Daddy? Big Daddy likes silly games! And you tolerated _ that  _ to get away from me — a-and — and  _ love _ !”

If Kim had the energy she’d pound her head into the floor and just start crying. Read the freakin’ room, Doc.

“B-b-but now!” Drakken wags his finger, slowly lowering himself to the ground as Shego looms over him. His little speech becomes more and more half-hearted by the second. “Y-you! You work for the  _ Buffoon _ ! Ah! How the mighty have fallen — ”

Oh geez. Now Kim wants to slap the floor into her head because she is the one being stupid, not Drakken. See, Drakken’s pulling a classic Old-School-Ron, doing a li’l distraction for her, and she’s highly thankful for it. 

Kim gets up as quickly as she can, even though her whole body aches, bones threatening to melt into soup any second, and she raises her hands over head and — 

_ Thump.  _

Shego’s head knocks into the floor and her body goes limp. Drakken jumps up and goes for a high five and even though it’s a total waste of time and energy, Kim permits it because Drakken literally just saved their lives. 

“Okay,” Kim snaps into game time right after the swing. “Ron’s evil. He’s taken over Global Justice — hey Will! Does that sound right?”

Will looks over his shoulder nervously, still trying and failing to put in the password. “How many  _ Ha’ _ s are in you  _ Booyaha _ ?”

Kim groans and motions for him to come over. “I’ll tell you if you restrain Shego for us.”

* * *

Throughout history, Drakken has proven time and time again that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. So color Kim surprised that when she opens the elevator for Will that Drakken stays propped up against the wall. Kim almost considers ushering him over, and she’s sure he would listen, but he’s right. 

“Signal’s dead,” Drakken remarks once Kim walks over to him. “Shego’s gone bad again. Buffoon’s in control of Global Justice. I have no fighting prowess…” His eyes finally lift up from the floor and hit her head with urgency. “...and you are in a bad mood.”

Kim nods. “Me and Ron had a fight, yeah. I don’t know if this is a good time to talk about it though…”

“Oh, contraire, Kimberly Ann,” Drakken says with accidentally villainous flourish. “It is of the utmost importance that we talk about it. How bad was the fight, did he get fired, what happen— ”

Kim dips her head, almost in shame. 

…

Yeah, it’s definitely shame.

“Ron quit Global Justice,” Kim says in a husky tone. Swallows and looks up. “He kinda just figured he could hop onto our team and I — I said no.”

Drakken leans back as if he kind of expected her to have done that. But he finds a little bit of courage, which is rare for him, and leans forward. “Why?”

Her cheeks burn a little. “Because — I don’t know, he should have talked to me first! I like working solo with — oh, Drew, don’t make that face, you know what I mean.”

“Yes, I do,” he sighs. Great. Now Drakken is upset with her too. Such a fragile ego, so easy to push to the ground… just like Ron. 

“Drakken, I value you as a team member, okay? I like having you around but — ” Kim motions for the two of them to kneel down. “ — this is really hard, I’ve never felt more challenged in my life and I really don’t want Ron to come back to make everything easy aga—”

The lights all go off at once, red emergency lights kicking up as  **_“BOOYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”_ ** thunders down the esteemed halls of Global Justice. Kim swears under her breath and glances over her shoulder to see if that killed power to the password console too — and  _ of course _ it did.

“You were saying?” Drakken drawls. 

Kim starts to say something when a loud series of  _ Bangs! _ and  _ Booms! _ drowns her out. Her ears prick up and she looks back to the door they came in from. It’s not on her floor, but there’s some kind of firefight going on, the horrible sound of gunshots occasionally overcome by high-pitched maniacal laughter with the occasional grunt. 

“Shoot,” Kim grunts. “We need to move. Now.”

Drakken furrows his brow and leans in a little closer. “I don’t think that’s the Buffoon, Kimberly Ann. It’s a little too World War I down there, surely he wouldn’t be able to scrounge up such a — ”

“ **Hark! Why if it isn’t my evil minion Shego!** ” Ron cries out all the way down from the first floor. Hard to hear all the way from the seventeenth, but then again, this is stuff that Kim has trained for. She gently catches Drakken by the neck and reels him in, hoping that he can pick up the muffled sounds echoing up the elevator chamber. 

“ **Don’t try to convince me that** **_you_ ** **took** **_her_ ** **out, Will Du. There’s only one person who can defeat Shego and it’s —** ** oh yes, of course me, thanks for the big ups, but I was going to say ** **— but KIM POSSIBLE! Where is she?!** **_”_ **

There’s this horrible stretch of silence that’s too important to sit still during. Kim quickly dives into her backpack and plucks out the laser lipstick. Drakken motions for her to crawl over to the western wall with him. She doesn’t know why she’s picking that side, but hey, she’ll take it. Any way out is good right now.

“ **Very well you foolish fools! If you shan’t tell me where to find the illustrious KIM POSSIBLE** —  **I shall find her myself!** **_”_ **

The cables holding the elevator rock like a pendulum with the sway of the vibrations. Blue light seeps through the doors and lifts to the ceiling, a prism of blue slowly scanning everything in each room. When the light hits Kim and Drakken, they both feel this prickling on their chests. 

“ **BooyahahahahaHA! I have found you Kimberly Ann Possible!** **_”_ **

“Oh great,” Kim rolls her eyes. “Awesome. Can’t wait.”

“Kimberly Ann!” Drakken snaps, prodding both index fingers into his cranium. “Head in the game! Listen...” he raps a knuckle against a steel plate, the sound a bit more hollow than it should be. “We’re lucky. Before I joined you, I was considering — _ holy moly, what is that?! _ ”

The floor physically rumbles, the metal doors seventeen stories down literally pried from their slots and tossed aside, crumpled as forgotten cans of soda.

Kim nearly loses her balance, even in the crouch. “Considering  _ what _ , Doctor D?”

Drakken blinks. “Oh. Considering invading Global Justice, but then I discovered you quit so I figured  _ Eh. _ But right here, Kimberly Ann we don’t have all day, zap the stupid thing.”

Her turn to blink. The lipstick fumbles back into her palms and she begins to zap an outline of the tile from the wall, holding the device point blank to compensate for the earthquake shaking the entire headquarters. “Where does it lead?” she spits.

“Air ducts. Should lead you out of here. From there, you can regroup.”

Kim raises an eyebrow, momentarily looking back at the bad doctor. “You say that as if you’re not coming.”

“I’m staying,” Drakken says fast. Must have made his mind up a while back. “I can distract him while you work.”

The rumbling gets louder, punctuated by Ron howling, “ **You’re not on the fifth floor, let’s try the eighth…** **_”_ ** so Kim decides to drop it. 

“Okay, I’m solo. Where do I go? I don’t know anyone who could possibly take Ron on, except maybe Sensei but I don’t exactly have him on speed dial.”

Drakken shakes his head. “Do you really think Ron’s going to let you escape?  _ You _ have to do it, Kim,  _ you _ have to beat him.” 

“What?” Kim blurts out, metal panel falling from the wall, revealing the aforementioned air duct. “How? I’m just — I’m Kim, normal human Kim. I can’t compete with his Mystical Monkey — ”

“You can do anything,” Drakken interrupts, slipping both hands onto her shoulders, the doors to their elevator slowly peeling off to the sides, ethereal blue hands prying them apart. “Go. Now.”

No time. Can’t — can’t talk, she just has to — 

She shuffles into the air duct and Drakken tosses the panel back over it with a loud  _ Bang! _

“ **_Oh poo, it’s just Doctor Drakken,_ ** ” Ron says from what is probably twenty feet away, the doors now creaked open. Kim knows she shouldn’t listen, she should move now. He can probably already sense her presence from where he stands, but it’s hard to look away from it all.

“I’m not just Doctor Drakken anymore, Buffoon!” Drakken cries out, probably puffing out his chest. “I’m a member of Team Possible. Unlike you.”

* * *

Kim crawls through the vent in a panic, knees and elbows slamming against each other. After maybe two minutes of full-on sprinting in a crouch, she slips and slams her chin against the metal ridges of the uneven plates. She bites down on her tongue, tears coming to her eyes and falling down her cheeks. 

Fuck fuck fuck motherfu—

She punches the wall of the duct besides her. Her knuckles burn but something about the pain brings her back. It’s real, and she needs to focus.

Shego’s out. Drakken might be dead. 

Electronics aren’t working. Wade can’t be contacted. Global Justice has fallen.

Ron is pissed. At her. Because he threw his fucking life out with the expectation she would catch him once again, and she looked away. She said no, and honestly? She doesn’t feel bad about it. She can’t keep doing this. 

She brought in Drakken. She even managed to convince Shego to join their team. She  _ worked _ for this. And it was because Ron left to do Global Justice, and yeah, maybe she tried to do Global Justice but they didn’t want her. Because she’s not as strong as Ron. 

And now Ron has the nerve to come back to her? After abandoning her?

_ Squeak squeak _ .

Kim narrows her eyes and scans the vent. Was that… 

“Rufus?” she whispers. “Are you…”

A pink blob slips in between the gap between metal plates, and Rufus drops into the duct with her, mouth wide. His whole body bobs up and down as he scrambles over to her. Kim smiles back and lowers her hands for him to climb into. At least she has a friend down here—

— pain.

Motherfucking—

Her finger screams and she hates doing it, but she has to slap Rufus really hard to get him off her finger, which is now bleeding through the glove. He hits the metal and rebounds, turning over to face her, eyes wide and feral. He growls at her. 

Ron, you bastard.

Rufus leaps at her, moving fast through the air and Kim catches him. She squeezes hard, it’s the only way to keep him from slipping through. “Shit, Rufus,” Kim stutters. “I’m sorry, crap… what do I — ”

“ **BooyahahaHAhaha!** ”

Oh good. A blue tendril shoots down the duct from the direction Kim was headed. She tries to swat it away but merely touching it ignites this burn that sears a hole in her glove and scars her flesh. She recoils, back hitting the vent as the tendril wraps around her ankle, dragging her over the ridges. She releases Rufus, and though he quickly turns to scamper after her, the tendril moves far faster. Her skull bounces up and down off against the bumps in the metal. Survival instincts come in and make her flip over. Her hands dig into the ridges as she passes by them, but the tendril just rips her along. It squeezes tighter, it just hurts more.

“ **Oh, Kimberly Ann Possible! How I’ve been waiting for you!** ”

The grate to the duct gives out inches before she reaches it, and blinding light slams into her eyes. The tendril pulls her out of the duct and dangles her upside down in the air. It takes so many seconds before she can even understand what she’s looking at.

Global Justice HQ is based on a cylinder structure where the main offices are circular and stacked in a tube-like structure, with labs and training drill rooms wrapped around in a donut shape. But now, the tube is empty. Kim can see the bottom. When she narrows her eyes, she can see details of the white mass at the bottom.

It looks like… Ron blew out each and every one of the seventeen floors leading up to her, and let them crumble to the bottom of the ‘tube.’ She winces, hoping not to see any bodies down there, but with all of the dusty rubble, she’s pretty sure she wouldn’t even be able to spot a corpse anyways. 

But she does see Ron smirking at her from seventeen stories below. Just standing on the rubble like it’s not a big deal. His skin is dark blue by now, the Mystical Monkey Power absolutely consuming him. His normally brown eyes have darkened into red, and his Global Justice uniform is in tatters. Kim is pretty sure agents started shooting the second he went dark — which probably triggered his anger and allowed this whole thing to happen. 

He also has a trenchcoat on that’s a little too long for him. It drags against the floor, and Kim is positive that it belongs to Betty. Which means that woman’s fate is up in the air too. 

At the very least, Ron is a murderer by this point. There is no way no one has died so far.

(But Ron has been a killer for a long time now. Even after Lowardia, he did some political killings for Global Justice, she’s pretty sure.)

At the very worst, everyone is dead and Kim is literally the only one who can take him out. 

“ **You must be so proud,** ” Ron cackles, so mirthful in his laughter. “ **You tried to SHUT ME OUT, Kimberly Ann! And look at you now** —  **it’s over. It took me, what? Five minutes to best the great Team Possible! Hehe.** ”

Ron slowly glides up into the air, neck craned high, overlong trench coat dangling beneath his feet like a pair of wings. His fingers twitch into his palm, as if he were gesturing to some stagehand lifting him up on a pulley. So theatrical of him. Ron always saw this as something of a game, and it gets so much worse when he’s been…

Blue energy sparks all around him, spreading across the floor in a wave and then running up the walls. A web forms between the rising Mystical Monkey Power, creating a network of blue lines running through the center of the ‘tube.’ All of them hook onto Ron, like he’s some kind of nucleus. His rising drags the matrix up, carrying the magic crawling up the sides of the cylinder. Quickly, the matrix lines spark and explode, sunspots of power ripping off them and creating more and more of a thicker web. 

The power gets violent. Like a torrent, or a reverse waterfall. It trails up with Ron and it  _ screams _ in the air, it’s murder to Kim’s ears and Ron’s smile only gets wider.

This is how he wants her to die. 

She’s not letting him.

Kim jerks her ankle back and forth. It’s enough to get the tendril swinging like a pendulum. If Ron were more focused, he wouldn’t allow that but he’s cocky. So Kim swings, her arcs getting wider and wider, the tendril digging deeper and deeper into her ankle. It gets to a point where she’s positive one more swing will burn her ankle down to the bone, so she lashes out like a snake. With her hand, she grabs the tendril just above where it clutches her ankle and she  _ squeezes _ it. For a moment, it releases some of its hold on and if she were to let go, she’d fall into the fastly approaching Ron.

But she doesn’t want that either.

Kim hoists her other leg up high, digging her heel into the tendril hard, bending it into the shape of a harp. Kim grunts and adjusts her grip, and the blue tendril goes white. It sparks, as if about to blow. Kim looks down at Ron and licks her lip, angling herself and  _ boom! _ the tendril explodes and rubber bands Kim out of the air.

She spirals down, spinning like a rocket, and flips her feet over her head and  _ BAM! _ she dropkicks Ron from that three story fall into his face.

For a moment, they both hang there. The waves of blue ride up the walls past them, their web hooked to Ron in the center. The blue lines drag up around Kim in a cone shape, and then there’s another explosion. This one is just Ron himself, and the two are propelled away from each other like magnets of the same charge. Ron rockets fourteen stories down and Kim flies five stories up. 

The whole matrix of Mystical Monkey Power falls with Ron, and tears into him. With only maybe three seconds to clear the area, Kim makes fast moves and uses her grapple hook to catch onto an air duct’s vent directly across her. She swings over, full body slamming into the wall.

Down below, Ron shifts from a full body sapphire to white as the power retracts back into him. He flashes like a dying light.

Kim screams and kicks the vent. It crumples in. Kicks it again and again and — knocks it out. It falls into the duct and Kim rolls herself in just as Ron —  _ boom  _ — explodes  _ again _ and the whole cylinder fills up with unstoppable Mystical Monkey Wrath.

Kim scrambles away fast. She knows that’s not it, there’s no way it’s that easy to stop him.

The metal plates she bolts across shift immediately, as if a carpet were pulled out from under her. They peel off the duct and fly at her. The first one nails her clean in the forehead, her head throbs and screams at her as she flops over. More and more pile into her. In the stomach. In the arms. The knees. The lower back. She bleeds dark crimson.

The duct curves and Kim rolls rolls rolls right out the duct and back into the open air. She falls, she can hardly focus. More metal slams into her, jamming and squeezing her body against herself. The metal folds and holds her in place, containing her in a tube that constrains her whole body. She twists and turns and tries so hard to escape but it’s of no use and when she’s five feet from hitting the ground —

— the tube stops.

And all of her bones break at once. Into powder.

But before she dies, the bones repair themselves and the wounds are all gone. The cut to the forehead, the zebra print of bruises, gone. The tube unfolds and she unceremoniously drops into the rubble. Groaning, Kim cranes her neck to look at Ron. 

From all over, rubble and metal rises and comes to him. The entirety of Global Justice HQ is melting — like her air duct just did, and piling around them. The stone goes to the ground and builds a pillar that rises up to the heavens. Its small, just big enough to fit Kim, Ron, and — whatever he’s building. 

The metal is what builds his device. It materializes in moments, but he is very careful of its construction. The sheer imagery of it alone is enough to freeze Kim in place. For minutes, she watches him build what she is pretty sure is some kind of Death Ray. 

Absently, Ron waves at the air and a sphere of blue power appears around them, extending for miles. There are explosions that litter the skies, and Kim thinks they are fighter jets that were flying in that are now… gone. The pillar they’re on keeps rising and when Kim looks down, she can see the whole world. It’s space, they’re in space. Somehow both of them are alive. She’s sure he’s fighting hard to keep her alive for whatever he’s about to do.

Legs shaking, Kim boosts herself up and stares at the back on Ron’s head.

“ **You’ve always thought you were better than me** ,” he says without his usual Attitudinate’d bounce.

“No,” she rasps.

“ **Yes** _ , _ ” he urges. “ **Come on. You make it worse when you lie to me, KP.** ”

Kim sighs. “Fine. For a while, yeah.”

“ **And it destroyed you when you found out that I was actually stronger.** ”

Kim hesitates, and then just drops it. “Yeah. It made me angry. I don’t think… we know each other anymore. If we ever knew each other at all.”

Ron grins and raises his fist. A crack of blue cuts through the air and the Lotus Blade falls to his hand. He points the sword at her throat. “ **Oh, I have a lot more in common with you than you do with** **_him_ ** **. We’re both hungry, for one. C’mon. Work with me here, KP. Back me up.** ”

Kim feels tears glistening under her eyes. They burn, just like her throat which is dry and scabby and constricting into itself right now. She feels so weak…

...no. It’s not a weakness. It’s her feelings that make her strong. It’s the fact that she never gives up. It’s in the name.

Ron narrows his eyes; he knows which way the way is blowing.

Little blue spheres pop into the air around the pillar, and hum dangerously. Ron licks his lips.

“ **Fuck you, Kim.** ” The blue spheres slide in and attack Kim from all sides. She squirms and wriggles, and winces as the blasts fly just past her body. The heat they give off is unimaginable and — oh course, Ron swoops in to suckerpunch-stab her with the Lotus Blade. Cool moves, asshole.

Ron stabs and just like a childish gamer who missed pulling off a sweet move in a game of  _ Super Smash Bros. _ Ron repeats the same stab to the stomach. After looking at her navel for so long with her cool crop top, he apparently wants to rip open her stomach.

Kim bobs back, dodging the stabs again and again and again. Slowly, he edges closer to her, closing the gap with each stab. She grins and when he gets too close, she swings both legs off the ground and conks Ron in the temple with her boot. He falls back, fingers running through his hair. 

She lands. Panting. “Wow, is this amateur hour over here or what?”

“ **It’s fine, I’ll just heal it** ,” Ron snips, immediately relaxing. Lazily, he slashes at the air. Where the sharp of the Lotus Blade meets the air, it ignites a blue ‘cut’ that floats for a moment before spinning at Kim like a boomerang. One slashes her in the knee and another gashes her shoulder. She falls back, slipping under one that flies right at her neck. It whizzes over her eyes and skims the top of her cheeks. She gnashes her teeth.

Ron lunges at her again, switching out from stabs and going for slashes. He slashes down over the elbow, left at the hips, right to the cranium. He’s relentless and it is  _ so _ hard doing this while meeting his eyes. Eyes that she used to look to for guidance. 

Kim screams and kicks Ron in the groin when he leaves a wide opening for himself, and then grabs him by both shoulders, still screaming when her head bashes into his. He groans and she throws him against the ground, the Lotus Blade clattering from his fist. Without even thinking, she grabs it and does the first thing that comes to mind: stab the Death Ray. 

She does it, and it buzzes and whirrs loud, upsetting groans as it dies.

“ **Should’ve killed me first** ,” Ron laughs from behind her, grabbing her from behind and twisting his hips, throwing her off the platform. She hits the ‘ground’ at a roll, chunks of the pillar pulling out to make a ground below her, extending for her until she stops rolling on her makeshift peninsula. 

She looks up at him and he laughs again. “ **I’ll just build a new Death Ray. Not like it’s hard, KP. Don’t you get it? If you want to beat me…** ” He doesn’t finish his sentence, and instead jams his fist into the air. His palm ignites a torrent of blue as tall as Kim and wide as the peninsula. It jettisons at her and Kim instinctually vaults over it, for a moment parallel with it, descending fast.

Falling into the torrent will kill her.

She cannot die. Not to him, and most certainly not now.

She feels something crack in her chest, she feels her breath go hot and a lightness come to her limbs. 

For a moment, the crackling undertone of Ron’s ‘evil’ voice gives out, and she hears the boy from high school yelp, “That’s impossible!”

Kim grins. “Yeah? Well, **check the name** .”

Kim glides and flies over the blast, stomach just an inch from skimming the blue. Ron screams and hurls another blast at her. Kim spins and corkscrews around it. More and more blasts come her way, and with each one that passes, she feels her muscles tense. She gets stronger. 

Ron’s waves get thicker and thicker, and there’s this moment where everything around her is deadly Mystical Monkey Power closing in on her. But there’s always a gap that dumps her out into safety. She glides and follows the gap, and just before the thundercloud of his magic caves in on her, she shoots out the only exit and hovers in the air about thirty feet above Ron. 

In this quick moment of peace, she sees a hint of blue light trailing down her nose. It’s her power now, too.

Kim rushes at the pillar and seconds before impact, she pulls at the air and the Lotus Blade dematerializes from Ron’s grip and re-materializes in hers. Ron screams bloody murder and Kim crashes the blade into the pillar, and the whole thing falls into the pieces of rubble it once was. It gives out underneath them and they both fall. 

Seconds pass and Kim focuses again. She pinches the fabric of reality and it gives her a gateway. She flies into it and reappears at the now leveled Global Justice HQ. She looks up and sees little white dots up above gaining speed and picking up the heat of the atmosphere. She waves her hand and they all vanish, bursting into puffs of smoke and dust. 

But Ron still falls all the way. He crashes against the ground in a heap, one shoulder arched dangerously high over the other. Groaning, he gets back up and then without any fanfare, rushes her again. She can’t even tell if his legs are moving or if he even moved to begin with — like if he just warped over. 

The Lotus Blade comes back to him and he slashes at her. He sinks the steel through the fat of her upper arm. He slashes open her knee, sinks his talons into her throat and suffocates her for a second. He laughs and she moans a sob before biting through his glove and cracking bone. 

He punches her in the side of the head and he slashes at her back, shredding open her body further. She throws both elbows out in front of her and drags herself up a few inches. He steps on the small of her back and raises the sword high above her head, and then  _ slams _ it down to her skull.

Kim twists out from underneath him, tripping him and then rolls her legs into the back of his knees. He drops the sword again and stumbles. Then, her body ripping open and bleeding like gills, she boosts herself up and jettisons her fist into his face. She draws blood that she knows he’ll heal, but goddamn, it’s satisfying. 

She crumples fast and falls to her knees. It’s too much blood, too much pain. 

“ **What are you doing** **_._ ** ” he growls.

She glances over her shoulder. “I’m protecting them from you. I won’t let you take over the world.”

“ **It’s too late,** ” he purrs, spinning the blade around his hand dangerously. 

Kim grunts and forces herself to get up, blooding pouring out of a gap in her teeth. She shakes her head. It’s hard to speak, her body begs her not to speak, but she does anything.

“It’s never too late.”

Then a spark. It comes from Ron’s chest and he screams. A web of blue comes from his heart and pours into the air. For a moment, directionless. But then it finds Kim and runs into her. She braces herself, but it doesn’t hurt. If anything, it feels like cold tap water running over a wound while she squeezes out the blood. She feels her body heal, she feels  _ alive _ .

The Mystical Monkey Power talks to her, but not in words. She just knows that it’s going to her now because it sees her as the mentally stronger host to its wrath. She allows it.

The blue light becomes so blinding it goes into white and consumes everything. When it fades, Ron stands in the same spot as before, now without any of the blue, wriggling on the ground like a worm and Kim holds the Lotus Blade. She feels the throb of the Mystical Monkey Power in her chest, and she raises her hand, clenching it into a fist. 

She can do anything. With this pressure, she can apply her magic anywhere but there are really only two things she wants to do. First, she flips Ron’s polarity from the Attitudinator. She knows it works when he ceases to sob and his dark eyes go normal, and it looks like just a very, pale, sweaty Ron.

“KP?” he gasps.

Kim offers a hint of a smile, before pulling the full wrath of the Mystical Monkey Power, and throttling it into the Lotus Blade. Its like electricity crackling. It comes out of her and flows into the blade. She sees Ron go slack jawed. He reaches into the air. “KP!? What are you doing?”

Kim ignores him and holds the blade in front of her, parallel to the ground. She feels the last scrap of Mystical Monkey Power leave her soul, and she feels the weight of the Lotus Blade. There’s this fleeting moment though, where she is still the Mystical Monkey Wielder and she uses to slash at the air with the blade, into an impregnable wall of space she created and the Lotus Blade cracks. It crumples, and it falls to the ground as a now useless piece of steel. 

The air goes cold as the Mystical Monkey Power leaves the world forever, and finally, Kim falls to her knees and screams again, punching the ground with both fists, digging her knuckles through the rubble, through the mud. She screams and screams and screams and screams

“KP?” Ron asks tentatively. 

Kim looks up at him and runs a filthy sleeve across her tears. “No. I need space from you. I’m sorry.”

* * *

A few days later, after Kim has enough strength to get out of bed and live again, she goes to the hospital in a suit. She never wears suits, but it feels right today. Black tie and everything.

Drakken looks to her right when she steps in. Shego would too, if she weren’t unconscious. Her rehabilitation will take a while. They have her hooked up to some machine that is very slowly rebalancing her polarity… like a slowburn Attitudinator. For it to work though, she’s got to be knocked out.

Kim takes a seat besides Drakken’s bed and rests a bouquet onto his stomach. He reaches up with his tiny digits to wave hello, and she takes his hand with both of hers, pressing her forehead into the mess. 

Drakken frowns. “I heard you and the Buffoon…”

“We broke up, yeah,” Kim sighs. “Before any of that happened. Still friends though. We’re getting Nacos after this… we got to start over.”

Drakken nods. For a guy who talks so much, he’s very good at giving Kim space to feel things.

Kim sighs. “You probably figured this out already, but I only brought you and Shego onto the team because I was lonely and missed him. But um… I don’t know, Drak. I really like what the three of us have as a team and I think…”

He runs his fingers against each of her knuckles. It relaxes her.

“...I think this is good,” Kim says with some finality. “I haven’t felt like my own person since middle school when I started all this. Everything has been… based off of Ron. When I got tired of the missions, I kept doing them anyways because it meant I could spend time with Ron. And I thought that’d be forever…”

“Nothing is forever,” Drakken slips in.

“...yeah,” Kim sighs. “I like this new thing we’re building. I like leading something. I like… I like it.”

“I’m proud of you,” Drakken grins. “For the first few years, you know, I was never that interested in your personal development…”

Kim cracks a smile and nudges his ribs. “Except when you built a Synthodrone to swoon me.”

“Nyah!” Drakken groans. “Okay, fine.  _ One time I did _ , but… you never changed much, Kimberly Ann. Until these past few months and… um… nyergh…”

Kim frowns, waiting. She could tease him more but…

“I’m proud of you,” Drakken gasps.

Kim smiles again. “Me too. You made a lot of good decisions and uh…” No, fuck it. She wants to  _ own it _ . “I’m proud of myself too.”

Drakken doesn’t say anything, and there’s this very peaceful moment between them. Kim looks around the hospital room, really thankful to be alive, and takes in a deep breath — 

— and exhales immediately. “Are you trying to watch  _ Friends? _ ” she asks.

“Yes,” Drakken snips, stuck on the home screen to Netflix. He’s so on and off with streaming platforms. He just doesn’t get it, no matter how many times she shows him.

“Drakken,” Kim groans. “Shego’s not that into you—”

“I know,” Drakken moans. “But I’m invested in the story now! I want to know if Ross and Rachel… nyergh.”

“No, sorry,” Kim snags the remote and then pulls out her phone, sending out a rapid fire text. “I am not allowing this.”

“Damn,” Drakken moans. “Who are you… whatsitcalled — texting?”

“Texting, yeah,” Kim laughs, pushing off her chair and invading Drakken’s bed. “I’m texting Ron. I’m going to see if he can bring the Nacos here so the three of us can watch like…  _ Mad Men _ , I heard it’s very aromantic and really character focused… might be good to get your mind off — ”

Drakken pouts. “The Buffoon would never understand  _ Mad Men _ — ”

“Too late, he’s in,” Kim giggles. “Get ready for a stellar commentary track from our world’s greatest mind. Hey, um… is it okay if I…” She lets her legs run down the length of the bed and she kicks off her boots. “I haven’t been getting much sleep the past few days and…”

“Of course,” Drakken sidles over, to give the kid some space. 

“Thanks,” she yawns, curling into herself and stealing one of his pillows, squeezing it to her chest. She falls quickly into slumber and maybe an hour later, she wakes up, feeling refreshed and new. With no one else influencing her decisions or setting her onto a path.

She’s Kim Possible. She runs the freelance hero network of Team Possible, and she calls the shots. Full autonomy. 

It’s her world now.


End file.
